Presently the talk turned upon the arrangements made to protect themselves and their friends when the trouble came after the abduction; and as it was not very material for me to learn that, I crept away to the bow, lowered myself noiselessly into the water, flashed my torchlamp as a signal to Burroughs, and struck out to meet him.
“You’ve given me the fright of my life, Ralph,” he said when I had clambered into the Firefly. “I heard their launch come out, and saw a light moving about the deck and didn’t know what the deuce to do.”
“It’s all right, Jack. Get back to the Stella. I’m cold to the bones, but I’ve heard enough to keep my blood from stagnating.”
“Here’s my flask. Take a pull.”
I gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of whisky, and as soon as I was on board and had had a hot bath, a vigorous towelling, and some grog, I was ready to talk things over with him.
I told him everything I had overheard. “And now the question is what I’m to do.”
“It’s as simple as falling off a tree. Slip off to the quay and bring off a party of police and take ’em on the yacht.”
“Yes, and get the only woman in the world I care for arrested for conspiracy in a plot to abduct the king.”
“You could make her safety a condition.”
“With whom? Who’s to assure me of that? It’s nearly midnight. Where do you suppose these men would be by the time I had roused first Volheno and then old Franco the Dictator, and argued the matter out. And if they refused, where should I find myself? I can tell you. In gaol until I opened my lips. I’m already half-suspect as it is. That saw won’t cut any ice, Jack.”